To awaken such from their slumbers, we proceed to shew, II. What their end shall be —
The peculiar manner in which the Apostle speaks of their " end," intimates that it will be dreadful,
1. Beyond expression —
[In the text St. Peter infers from the trials, which God suffers to come upon believers here, the far greater miseries that shall be endured by unbelievers hereafter. But his very mode of suggesting this inference shews, that the two states could scarcely admit of any comparison : for what are any transient pains of body inflicted by the most ingenious cruelty of man, when compared with the eternal torments both of soul and body, which will be inflicted on the wicked by the hand of an incensed God? St. Paul institutes a similar com- parison, and like St. Peter, leaves our imagination to supply what no language could possibly express f — . There are indeed terms used in Scripture to represent to us the misery of the damned. They are represented as " cast into a lake of fire and brimstone," " where the worm of an accusing conscience dieth not, and the fire of God's wrath is not quenched ;" they " weep and wail and gnash their teeth ;" and the " smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." But, awful as these expressions are, they convey no adequate idea of the misery sustained by those who have perished in unbelief: we must say of that, as St. Paul says of the things he heard and saw in the third heavens, that it is unutterable «.]
2. Beyond a doubt —
[The Apostle appeals to our own consciences for the truth of the inference which he suggests. He says, in effect, "What must the state of unbelievers be ? Can it be the same with that of obedient believers ? Will God put no difference between those who serve him, and those who serve him not ? Has not the Scripture plainly declared the end of those who disobey the Gospel ? And are we not constrained to acknow- ledge the equity of that sentence, which the contemners of Christ are taught to expect? Shall an angel from heaven be accursed, if he presume to preach any other Gospel h, and shall we escape with impunity, if we reject this ? Our wishes are doubtless in opposition to the declarations of God ; but in our judgment we must approve of them ; and we shall surely be silent in the day that they shall be enforced, even though we ourselves be the unhappy monuments of God's displeasure.]
f Heb. x. 29. s 2 Cor. xii. 4. h Gal. i, 8.